After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain how politics is subject to a variety of “nonpolitical” agents.
   
• Describe how the physical characteristics and limitations of our world affect politics.
   
• Describe some of our basic human characteristics and how they affect the political world.
   
• Explore how things like economics, religion, race, ethnicity, science and technology, and history influence the building of our political communities.
   
• Discuss how culture can affect politics.